Recently Amazon launched a personal cloud music service. The press noted the importance of the net giant's actions. A few mentioned the similarities with the MP3tunes service which EMI is suing us for. (We're awaiting the Judge's ruling.) I couldn't find any stories where reporters actually used Amazon's service and compared it to MP3tunes so I thought I'd outline how Amazon compares to MP3tunes.

1) Amazon's personal music service is a sinkhole that devours your music, but makes it difficult or impossible to get it out.

You can't get your song library out of Amazon but, MP3tunes is one-click easy

MP3tunes and Amazon both provide software making it easy to load your song library. However the Amazon service operates like a sinkhole where your music slides in but is tough to get out. This means, if you want to load your music to your new computer or to a laptop for traveling or maybe to your new iPod or iPhone, you're out of luck. MP3tunes, on the other hand, makes it one-click simple to move all your music to any computer for easy loading wherever you need. MP3tunes recognizes it's your music and you decide where it should reside.

2) Smart syncing is essential for an organized music collection and Amazon isn't good at it and MP3tunes is.

Amazon v MP3tunes Personal Cloud Music

Many people have music spread about on multiple computers such as your work computer, home computer, or laptop. MP3tunes LockerSync software runs in all those locations and at the conclusion you'll have one perfect collection with no duplicates as it should be. Amazon, on the other hand, easily gets confused because it's more dumb uploading. Run their software in multiple places and you may end up with piles of duplicate songs rendering your music collection worse than when you started.

3) Surprisingly, there's no easy way to actually listen to music on Amazon.

Amazon v MP3tunes Can You Play Music?

First and foremost, a personal cloud music service should make it easy to explore and listen to music and Amazon also fails here. With Amazon you must individually click on songs or albums which quickly grows tiresome. Absent from Amazon's music service is even the most basic ways to listen such as a "shuffle" mode.

MP3tunes is designed to make it easy to play your music. As soon as you login it will automatically start playing your newest songs. One click away is "Shuffle" which plays a random mix of tunes. MP3tunes keeps tracks of your favorite songs and there's a playlist called Most Played to quickly stream those. Even more advanced listeners can find a song they like from their locker and tell MP3tunes to "Play more like this" similar to how Pandora works.

4) Amazon only supports web and Android while MP3tunes works everywhere.

When your music is in the Amazon sinkhole the only places it works is in a web browser or Android phone. MP3tunes is designed to work everywhere including: any web browser, Android, iOS, WebOS, Window7, internet radios (like Logitech and Grace Digital), Roku and more! The MP3tunes system is open to all developers.

Using MP3tunes with Logitech Internet Radio

At MP3tunes we believe it's your music. We're not a sinkhole trying to trap your digital possessions so you'll have to pay us forever. Facebook does that with your personal info and now Amazon is doing it with your music. Don't get swallowed into the sinkhole. MP3tunes is much more advanced with smarter syncing, full download capability and more ways to listen to your music on more devices. Don't take my word for it - go signup for a free account and try it yourself. Did I mention we're also cheaper?